My response to an interesting article on Blockchain and Web 3.0

https://medium.com/@gavofyork/why-we-need-web-3-0-5da4f2bf95ab (Why we need Web 3.0 -Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood on why today’s internet is broken — and how we can do better next time around)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I agree, the next iteration of the web needs to be a fundamental shift in moving away from exchanging pages of experiences to the exchange of intrinsic value. In the 1960s, Douglas Engelbart, the man behind the Mother of all Demos wrote about a future of computing that could become an intelligence amplifier, where a combination of words behind ideas would be indexed and associated with similar trails of ideas and commentary, paying tribute to Vannevar Bush’s article from 1945, As We May Think. Similarly, Ted Nelson’s project Xanadu spoke to technology more closely mimicking the dynamics of the human mind over the conventions of written pages where articulations between users would exist in parallel states of each other similar to how we think.

What lies deep inside is where the value lies whether it is a transaction of currency, skills, or personal, professional, or civic relationships. The core technologies behind blockchain seem to be uniquely aligned with this concept of granular connectivity wrapping dominion's of user experiences in a blanket of secure transactions rather than feeding the corporate silos of today. Very interesting that Tim Berners-Lee with MIT are building a new framework (Solid) based on the principles of separating personal data and applications through decentralization feeding a semantic web of connections.

Far from an expert on blockchain technology, I am able to at least separate the hype from reality and understand the limitations of the current applications, especially in the complexities and power consumption of mining for currency but at the core lies the potential of a peer to peer decentralized distributed ledger helping the individual securely manage daily transactions in the pursuit of happiness and deeds serving as a personalized vault of information for other applications to build dynamic experiences from. Maybe blockchain isn't the answer but it is a hell of a question in pursuit of technology to engage human potential.

Vannevar Bush, Douglas Engelbart, Ted Nelson, Tim Berners-Lee, and countless others were saddled with the limitations of the technology of the day to truly explore the potential of the human condition connected. Now that we have a toolset within our grasp, what are we going to do with it? Will communication technology continue to play to our lowest common denominator or inspire the highest. Blockchain seems to be a significant arrow in the quiver of moving these ideas forward.

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